Hard drive camcorder files: highest record mode + YouTube

[vid4NY]

Hello forum,

Ok, so I’m going to record a project with a Panasonic SDR-H18 hard disk camcorder, (it’s not a high definition camera).

It’s going to be 4 or 5 minutes worth of clips edited in Sony Vegas Movie Studio – all files taken from the camera hard drive. It will also have a stereo music soundtrack throughout all.

The camera has three recording modes: XP (10mbps), SP (5 mbps) and LP (2.5mbps).

LP mode is out. SP looks decent and XP looks noticeably better than SP.

I can live with the greater storage issue and the fact that XP is a little choppy in preview if I add a lot of fx in Vegas; but the final rendered file is always smooth.

My questions are: A large file produced by the highest XP mode is okay for a DVD, but what if I wanted to also put it on YouTube and something like a rendered WMP (320×240) file doesn’t come under the required YouTube 100mb limit?

So…

-Besides reducing the frame rate, (which I want to avoid); are there other options for reducing the file size while retaining the benefits of the high XP mode?

In other words, (if I have yet to record any footage), is it worth the XP mode or should I probably just record in the lower SP mode from the start to play it safe?

Four minute sample footage I took in XP and rendered from Vegas (320×240 30fps, 128kbps audio); the file was 10mb, but this was without any fx – there will be a lot of fx in the project which adds mb.

Thanks for your advice. 8)

[Coreece]

Go XP and output a WMV file at 512K for youtube…great quality, low file size, no problem. A WMV at 256k should also be great for youtube.

Also, adding fx souldn’t add mb’s to a rendered file, just like HDV and DV files are the same size because they both use a rate of 25mbs.

Best Regards

[vid4NY]

Coreece Wrote:

Go XP and output a WMV file at 512K for youtube…great quality, low file size, no problem. A WMV at 256k should also be great for youtube.

Also, adding fx souldn’t add mb’s to a rendered file, just like HDV and DV files are the same size because they both use a rate of 25mbs.

Best Regards

Great…good to hear that you recommended the XP mode…

When I’m finished, I will try your suggestions.

Thanks for the advice, it is greatly appreciated.

[bobjr94]

Youtube says on the site you should do 320×240 30fps mpeg4 video with mp3 audio for best conversion. All files are converted to flash when uploaded, so there not much use in making super large files, the bitrate is cut way down, your just adding to the upload time. I find 5-8 Mb per minute gives good quality and about that there is no change.

So if your video was 10 minutes, a good file size should be 50-80MB. While youtube is a good way to share videos, there is alot lost in the quality.

[Author]

Posts